“A horse gallops with his lungs,

Perseveres with his heart,

And wins with his character.” – Tezio

Keeping integrity in the face of so many choices can be a difficult task. With election day being today, we are asked to vote for the person we feel has the most integrity. We, as the public, have to sift through the misleading information and lies. We have to remember where we were and where we want to be. We really should be taking a good hard look at the real character of the people we are voting for. In reality, unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. We tend to watch the commercials or believe what the other party has to say. How many of us really do the real research about who we’re voting for? Personally I don’t like lies. I don’t like it when people just believe something because it’s continually being said. I prefer it when people make their choices based on the facts, not the statements of the politicians or the parties who are in it to make money off of the election. Facts are what should keep a person in office. Through those facts will show their integrity.

What is integrity? Well, the dictionary states the definition as being “adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.” The way I understand it to be is that a person who has integrity is a person who stays honest with him/herself and makes the difficult choices in life based on who they are as a human being and in their beliefs. They won’t be bought out. They won’t necessarily do what the popular choice would be. They stick to their belief systems even when they’re judged for it and it’s not always the easy road. In fact, it tends to be the most difficult road. They find adversity everywhere they look because they’re not doing what everyone else wants them to do on their agenda. They stick to their guns (so to speak) but can also admit when they made a mistake. They can admit they made a mistake and have changed their minds due to something else in their lives. I change my mind all the time on the things I like, dislike, believe in or don’t believe in. Does that mean I don’t have integrity? Ummm…..No. I feel I have plenty of integrity.

Sometimes when we believe in something so much, though, we get angry and persistent. We can lose ourselves in our beliefs so much that we don’t want to see the other person. We aren’t calm. We aren’t considerate. We just want to win. We start to lose our integrity.

Something I have learned over the past several months is to just stay calm in the face of adversity. Sounds easy. It’s not. When something isn’t going our way it’s easier to get upset and want to stomp our feet and just get our way. When that happens I invite you to take a deep breath and then speak from your heart. To keep our integrity we must be honest with ourselves in what is happening and, in order to do that, we must speak from our heart. Speaking from the heart is where we have the most power, our character shows through, and our integrity stays with us.

The quote from above says “…perseveres through his heart….” Isn’t it perseverance that often gets us what we want? I’ve talked about that before in previous blogs. Perseverance doesn’t mean bullying others to get our way. It doesn’t mean we get angry and pushy with our beliefs. It is from the heart. It is speaking from the heart. It is keeping integrity in the face of adversity. When we do that, that is when we truly see things start to change and start happening. That is when we get what we want. It’s not always easy. It can make you feel vulnerable. But you won’t lose your integrity. You will continue to grow as a person. You will get what you want and be content. You will win.

– written by Kristen Scanlon (Certified BodyTalk Practitioner & Animal Communicator), owner of Talk Pawsitive, LLC and co-owner of The Healing Loft, LLC. You can email her at healing@thehealingloftmpls.com to set up an appointment.